These towns and small cities are getting edge data centres

Open Access Data Centres (OADC) has announced the deployment of nine new edge data centres in South Africa.

The 0.5MW data centres offer colocation, rooftop access, and high-speed network interconnectivity between facilities at up to 100Gbps and on multiple routes.

Of the nine facilities, three have been completed. These are located in Pietermaritzburg, New Germany, and Mount Edgecombe.

The remaining six will be located in Beaufort West, Paarl, George, Kimberley, East London, and Brits and will go live by August.

These sites will be joining Polokwane, Kelksdorp, Gqeberha Greenacres, Grabouw, and Nelspruit, where OADC data centres are already live.

OADC explains it consolidates edge computing, edge data centres and hyperscale connectivity within a single ecosystem, helping ISPs, fibre providers, and 5G operators quickly and cost-effectively extend their network reach into new markets.

OADC chief technical officer Bob Wright said the sites were open-access and carrier-neutral, meaning any licenced operator can bring their fibre into the facilities at no charge.

OADC first launched its platform in South Africa in early May 2022.

The company plans to have 26 edge data centres live in South Africa by end-August, growing to 100 by the end of the year.

OADC said in addition to expanding network coverage, its edge services delivered latency improvements by enabling content to be served locally, maximising the end-user experience and underpinning the successful rollout of new, time-sensitive applications.

“The ability to pre-process large volumes of critical data at the edge, before it is forwarded to larger, regional facilities, also improves efficiency and optimises backhaul expenditure,” the company explained.

OADC also plans to establish larger 2-3MW core data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town during the third quarter of the year to support core-to-edge connectivity.

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